Home Office

Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships: Coronavirus

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that civil registration of marriages can continue wherever possible during the covid-19 lockdown.

Kevin Foster: National restrictions in England came to an end on 2 December. Marriages and civil partnerships are allowed under each of the current four tiers of local restrictions in England, and it is for local authorities to ensure ceremonies can be safely delivered in line with Public Health and local authority guidanceMarriages and Civil Partnerships can take place in Wales where appropriate risk assessments have been undertaken and safety measures are in place.

Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: Food

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many food factories in England have been required by the Food Standards Agency or Health and Safety Executive to close or suspend operations as a result of a covid-19 outbreak.

Helen Whately: The Foods Standards Agency and the Health and Safety Executive do not have the powers to close food factories in response to COVID-19 outbreaks. As with any localised outbreaks, the Joint Biosecurity Centre works with local leaders and public health officials to bring them under control. Where outbreaks are traced to workplaces, the relevant business leaders are also brought into these conversations to develop a plan to suppress the spread of the virus. By working in this collaborative way, it has not been necessary to use regulations to close any food factories in response to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Social Services

James Grundy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made in setting up a commission to determine the future of adult social care.

Helen Whately: The Government is committed to sustainable improvement of the adult social care system and will bring forward proposals in 2021. The long-term reform of social care is a complex topic, which requires full and thorough consideration, particularly in light of the current circumstances.The Department has recently held detailed discussions with stakeholders about social care and the impact of COVID 19 on reform priorities, including a roundtable with workforce representatives. We will continue to work with and listen to stakeholders as reform plans develop.

Autism

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support NHS leaders to bring down Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service waiting lists for autism diagnosis in (a) Leicestershire and (b) the UK.

Helen Whately: In line with commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to test and implement the most effective ways to reduce waiting times for an autism diagnosis for children in England over the next three years. To support NHS leaders in England, NHS England and NHS Improvement have commissioned work to evaluate how different autism diagnostic pathways work for children and young people. This includes considering the workforce requirements to deliver effective diagnostic pathways and the appropriate pre and post-diagnostic support.The Leicestershire Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service is working to reduce the length of time children and young people wait for an autism diagnosis through the introduction of additional capacity.

Care Homes: Government Assistance

Mrs Flick Drummond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make additional support available to care homes as a result of increasing insurance premiums and mortgage costs.

Helen Whately: We recognise that the adult social care sector is facing significant pressures in light of the pandemic and we are working closely across Government and with care providers to better understand the impact of cost increases across the sector. We have already made £4.6 billion of support available to local authorities so they can address pressures on local services caused by the pandemic, including in adult social care. In addition, we have made £1.1 billion available to social care, the majority for care homes, to support them with additional infection prevention and control costs related to Covid-19, and a further £149 million to help with additional costs of testing As part of the 2020 Spending Review, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government will provide councils with access to an additional £1 billion for social care next year and we also expect to provide them with estimated funding of around £3 billion to help manage the impact of COVID-19 across their services, including in adult social care and to compensate for income losses.

Continuing Care

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department and NHS England are taking to ensure continuity of care for patients affected by the recent court ruling in Bell v Tavistock.

Jo Churchill: A full clinical review must be carried out for all patients under the age of 16 years old who are currently receiving puberty blockers. If the patient intends to continue on puberty blockers or progress onto cross sex hormones, the lead clinician must make a ‘best interests’ application to the Court for final determination of that individual’s needs. No patients will have puberty blockers withdrawn unless, as a result of the clinical review, a clinical decision, in consultation with the patient, is made to withdraw puberty blockers, or a court considers a ‘best interest’ decision and decides it is not in the patient’s interest to remain on puberty blockers.

Bowel Cancer: Young People

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help reduce the number of young people developing bowel cancer.

Jo Churchill: For genetic conditions that cause bowel cancer, such as Lynch Syndrome, the NHS Long Term Plan states that we will extend the use of molecular diagnostics and, over the next ten years, the NHS will routinely offer genomic testing to all people with cancer for whom it would be of clinical benefit, and expand participation in research. The NHS will begin from 2020/21 to offer more extensive genomic testing to patients who are newly diagnosed with cancers so that by 2023 over 100,000 people a year can access these tests.

Vaccination: Young People

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people between the ages of 18-21, who for reasons not relating to long-term health conditions, are not up to date with their vaccinations.

Jo Churchill: We do not hold specific data on the overall vaccination uptake data of individuals between the ages of 18-21 years old.The National Health Service vaccination programme does not include any vaccinations delivered routinely to those aged between 18 and 21 years old, aside from Pertussis for pregnant women, and for those with long-term health conditions. However, there remain opportunities for individuals who have not been vaccinated, or fully vaccinated, to do so when they attend their general practitioner.

Cancer: Coronavirus

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the international response to meeting increased demand in cancer care as a result of treatment delays during the covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: No such assessment has been made.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Plastics

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will introduce a date for banning the use of allsingle-use non-essential plastic items.

Rebecca Pow: We have already introduced a restriction on the supply of plastic straws, drinks stirrers and cotton buds from October this year. In addition, we are scoping out additional items for which a ban would be a suitable and proportionate measure. The Environment Bill will also allow us to tackle problematic plastics through a variety of policy measures, including measures to impose charges on single-use plastic items; introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks containers; and make producers cover the costs of collecting and managing plastic packaging waste. Generally, we prefer to help people and businesses make more sustainable choices, for example through better product labelling, rather than resorting to a charge or a ban. Plastic may be the best available material for some products and banning them may cause more harm than good. We expect the initiatives by industry, such as the UK Plastics Pact, combined with our reforms to work together to eliminate the most problematic plastics from use. We will introduce a new world-leading tax on plastic packaging which will apply to businesses producing or importing plastic packaging which does not meet a minimum threshold of at least 30% recycled content, subject to further consultation, from April 2022. Together with the Government’s reform of the Packaging Producer Responsibility system, this will transform the economic incentives of producers by encouraging more use of recycled plastic and driving up recycling rates.